Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday in his video briefing said that India is estimated to have the highest growth among G20 countries

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday in his video briefing said that India is estimated to have the highest growth among G20 countries and is amongst the handful of countries to have positive GDP growth as per International Monetary Fund (IMF). Das said that the macroeconomic situation has deteriorated and the global economy may plunge into the worst recession since the great depression.

'Light still shines through bravely'

He added that India is expected to show a sharp turnaround post the COVID-19 crisis in FY22 with 7.4% growth as per the IMF. The RBI Governor said, "On April 14, International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its global growth projections revealing that in 2020, the global economy is expected to plunge into the worst recession since 'The Great Depression'. Since March 27, the macroeconomic and financial landscape has deteriorated precipitously in some areas, but light still shines through bravely in some others."

"For 2020-21, International Monetary Fund projects sizable reshaped recoveries, close to 9 percentage points for the global GDP. India is expected to post a sharp turnaround and resume its pre-COVID, pre-slowdown trajectory by growing at 7.4% in 2020-21. IMF Economic Counsellor has named it 'The Great lockdown' estimating cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020-21 at around 9 trillion US dollars, which is greater than the economies of Japan & Germany combined."

In his address, the RBI governor thanked the people involved in essential services. He announced that RBI has cut reverse repo rate from 4% to 3.75% and has provided Rs 50,000 cr special finance facility to financial institutions such as Nabard, Sidbi, NHB. The RBI address comes a day after Prime Minister Modi met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss the economic situation in the country following the prolonged lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.